De Lima smells collusion between Wang Bo, complainant to avoid deportation

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima smells something fishy with the complaints filed by a certain Jose Chua against suspected Chinese crime lord Wang Bo, which resulted in the delay in his deportation to Beijing.

At Tuesday's hearing of the House committee on good governance and public accountability, De Lima shared her suspicion that the cases filed by Chua against Wang might just be part of a modus operandi to prolong Wang's stay in the Philippines.

Upon review of Wang Bo's case, De Lima discovered that Chua filed an estafa case against him on February 10, the same day he arrived in the Philippines from Malaysia. Chua alleged that Wang Bo failed to pay the P3 million loan he obtained from him in December 2014.

But the following day, when Wang Bo had been tagged as an undesirable and an undocumented alien by the Bureau of Immigration, Chua filed another complaint alleging that Wang failed to return the P3 million he owed him over a botched property sale.

"Maybe Chua and his counsel realized na hindi tamang basis ang estafa [to hold off Wang Bo's deportation] so they put up another story about the land purchase," De Lima said.

Same lawyer

Adding credence to De Lima's suspicion that the cases filed against Wang were bogus was the discovery that Bryan Bantilan, the notary public with whom Chua had his second complaint subscribed, was the same lawyer who represented Wang for his inquest proceedings before the BI.

De Lima said the estafa complaint against Wang were dismissed by the City Prosecutor's Office in Manila last May 29 because of Chua's non-appearance.

"It's so obvious not just in the appearance of the complaints--which were just made up of a single page-- that they're bogus but there's also that circumstance that they (Chua and Wang Bo) had the same lawyers," she said.

Owing to the suspicious circumstances surrounding the filing of cases, De Lima believes Chua tried to help Wang Bo avoid deportation by going around BI rules preventing the banishment of a foreign national implicated in a case.

"I think there have been cases wherein the same modus was resorted to by the parties involved wherein they used the filing of complaint as the very ground to prevent or avoid deportation because of the provision in the internal issuances of the BI that the subject of a deportation can't be easily deported if he's the subject of a criminal complaint here in the country," she said.

Deportation

Wang Bo, who was at the hearing, denied knowing either Chua and Bantilan. He maintained that he is a documented foreigner who worked in a company providing customer and technical services prior to his arrest.

The BI had ordered Wang Bo's deportation upon a request from the Chinese government. His departure, however, was delayed after his camp moved for reconsideration and the BI overturned the summary deportation order (SDO) on May 21.

On May 27, De Lima took charge of the case and eventually upheld the SDO's validity.

Earlier this month, The Standard published a report claiming that Wang Bo bribed Immigration officials to ensure his release and his continued stay in the country, which was the subject of the House committee's investigation.

It also claimed that the suspected Chinese criminal gave $10 million for Malacañang to bribe lawmakers for the passage of the proposed Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL). Some funds were also reportedly given as contribution to the Liberal Party's campaign kitty.

De Lima said she has held the implementation of the SDO for Wang Bo in abeyance pending the completion of ongoing investigations regarding the BBL payola controversy.

Asked when she thinks Wang Bo could be deported, De Lima said: "I'm going to play it by the ear. If it's going nowhere and we conclude that these are just plain rumor, we have to implement the SDO. It's just a question of when." —KBK, GMA News